SLIPPERY ROCK — Another close game. Another close loss.

Slippery Rock University women's basketball coach Laurel Heilman is trying to find the secret to winning the close contests that seem to be slipping through her Slippery Rock team's hands recently.

The latest narrow defeat came Friday night at Morrow Field House as The Rock squandered a seven-point lead late in the second half on the way to a 57-54 loss to Pitt-Johnstown.

"It's a shame that we lost," Heilman said. "(Cats coach Jodi Geist) made a comment to me that they stole it from us. We've been in two close games where we didn't execute down the stretch. I'll take blame for that. We need to do more situation type things in practice."

Slippery Rock (5-4) lost to West Liberty State College in overtime two weeks ago in a game it led 22-4 at one point.

Just chalk to up to a young team's growing pains.

"You can't coach experience," Heilman said.

But her young stars in waiting showed that there might be much better things in the future.

Freshman Alissa Schake scored 11 points and fellow freshman Amanda Nero provided a spark with seven points off the bench, including a four-point play in the first half that changed the momentum.

Sophomore KellyAnn Staudinger also had 11 points for The Rock.

Sophomore Angela Greaser looked like she would be the hero of the game, hitting a 3-pointer to put The Rock on top at 54-53 with 1:50 remaining in the game and then got a steal at the other end.

But SRU couldn't score again.

"They just have to get thrown into the fire," Heilman said. "I guess we're going to take some lumps."

Trailing by three with 15 seconds left, Heilman was dismayed that her team failed to get off a 3-point attempt.

"I'm more mad about that play than anything else in the game," Heilman said.

The Rock held Pitt-Johnstown to fewer than 70 points for only the third time in nine games. The Cats came into the contest averaging 73 points every time out.

"You have to give credit to Slippery Rock for what they did," Geist said. "We got outhustled. Slippery Rock has played hard all year."

Several times in the first half, the Cats looked like they were about to pull away, only to watch The Rock claw back.

SRU didn't score its first points until six minutes had ticked off the clock, yet Pitt-Johnstown led just 6-0.

Samantha Conner paced the Cats with 16 points. Jessica Zapf added 14 points and eight rebounds and Allison Krischer pitched in another 12.

Despite the loss, Heilman was happy with the effort.

"They dug a lot of balls off the floor and scrapped to get back," Heilman said. "We could have been blown out in the first half. I'll take this kind of effort every day of the week."

PITT-JOHNSTOWN (57)

Allison Krischer 4-8 2-2 12, Crystal Andrews 1-5 2-2 4, Jaclyn Schirf 1-2 2-4 5, Samantha Conner 7-13 2-2 16, Jessica Zapf 5-9 4-4 14, Chelsea McKinney 0-0 0-0 0, Lindsay Cale 0-1 0-0 0, Jami Oaks 2-3 1-2 6, Kristin Irwin 0-0 0-0 0, Shannon Reigh 0-0 0-0 0, Krista Britcher 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-41 13-16 57.

SLIPPERY ROCK (54)

Amber McFeely 2-4 0-0 5, Angela Greaser 3-5 1-2 9, Amanda Chojnacki 3-10 0-0 6, Kristen Bonner 1-7 0-0 3, Jessica Schake 4-11 3-4 11, Amanda Nero 2-6 1-1 7, Jess Caso 1-1 0-0 2, Dana Stewart 0-1 0-0 0, Cathy Lee Peffer 0-0 0-0 0, KellyAnn Staudinger 4-9 3-4 11, Jess DiSante 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-54 8-11 54.

Halftime — 30-30. 3-point goals — PJ 4-6 (Krischer 2-3, Schirf 1-1, Oaks 1-2), SRU 6-16 (McFeely 1-1, Greaser 2-4, Bonner 1-5, Nero 2-6). Rebounds — PJ 25 (Zapf 8), SRU 31 (Chojnacki 8). Assists — PJ 9 (Krischer, Schirf 3), SRU 13 (McFeely 7). Total fouls — PJ 9, SRU 16. Fouled out — none; Technical fouls — none.